Treehouse TV (commonly known as Treehouse) is a Canadian English-language discretionary

specialty channel A specialty channel (also known in the United States as a cable channel or cable network) can be a commercial broadcasting or non-commercial television channel which consists of television programming focused on a single genre, subject or targete ...

that was launched in 1997. Its name comes from sister network YTV's former programming block, "

The Treehouse The Treehouse may refer to: *A programming block on YTV (TV channel) * ''The Treehouse'' (video game), a 1991 point-and-click computer game made by Broderbund *''The Treehouse: Eccentric Wisdom from my Father on How to Live, Love, and See'', a book ...

". The channel is owned by YTV Canada, Inc., a subsidiary of

Corus Entertainment Corus Entertainment Inc. (often simply known as Corus) is a Canadian mass media and television production company. The company was founded in 1987 as Shaw Radio Ltd. as a subsidiary of Shaw Communications and was spun-off from Shaw in 1999. It h ...

. Having launched on November 1, 1997, it is the first full-day preschool-oriented TV channel in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. Development of a separate channel started when YTV aired preschool shows as part of its weekday morning line-up. This block of shows was given the name "The Treehouse" in 1994. On November 1, 1997, Treehouse TV launched as its own channel, airing from 6 a.m. to 3 a.m. daily. The channel, as of 2003, is currently a 24-hour broadcaster. Like the block it was spun off from, commercials weren't broadcast when the Treehouse channel first launched. Instead, shorts hosted by humans and puppets were broadcast. As of 2011, Treehouse TV had been available to over 7.5 million homes across Canada.

History

The Treehouse block (YTV)

The Treehouse brand began as a daily programming block for children on YTV. The block was given the name "The Treehouse" in 1994. Commercials for the block weren't shown. Instead, the block was hosted by three program jockeys (or "PJs") named PJ Katie, PJ Krista, and PJ Todd. In between shows, the PJs made crafts, played games, and held contests. As the block's name suggests, these segments were set in a

tree house A tree house, tree fort or treeshed, is a platform or building constructed around, next to or among the trunk or branches of one or more mature trees while above ground level. Tree houses can be used for recreation, work space, habitation, a ha ...

. The PJs' co-hosts were a group of stuffed animal puppets called the Fuzzpaws. On Fridays, PJ Katie would act out stories with clay animals. These segments were eventually spun off into the series '' PJ Katie's Farm''.

Treehouse channel

In early 1996, it was announced that YTV was looking to "break part of tsaudience off with a separate network aimed at viewers under the age of 6." The network's president, Patricia Macdonald, said she had "done a lot of research that led us to the conclusion that the kids market is underserved." On September 4, 1996, the

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; ) is a public organization in Canada tasked with the mandate as a regulatory agency tribunal for various electronic communications, covering broadcasting and telecommunic ...

(CRTC) approved YTV's request to launch a new channel called Treehouse TV. The new channel eventually debuted on Saturday, November 1, 1997, at 8:00 a.m. EST. For a few months, The Treehouse block on YTV continued to air alongside the channel. In 1998, the Treehouse block was replaced by YTV Jr., an unhosted block. Like the Treehouse block, the Treehouse channel was non-commercial, opting instead to show interstitial shorts in between shows. These shorts featured a new set of characters who lived in Treetown. Despite the PJs (program jockeys) from the original Treehouse block not returning for the Treehouse channel, ''PJ Katie's Farm'' reran on Treehouse throughout 1999. In March 2005, Corus Entertainment began offering a

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films Digital distribution, digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typica ...

service called ''Treehouse On Demand'' to cable providers such as

Rogers Cable Rogers Cable is Canada's largest cable television service provider with about 2.25 million television customers, and over 930,000 Internet subscribers, primarily in Southern and Eastern Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador. Roger ...

and

Cogeco Cogeco Inc. is a Canadian telecommunications and media company. Its corporate offices are located at 1 Place Ville-Marie in Montreal, Quebec. The company is structured into three strategic business units (SBU); Cogeco Connexion, Breezeline (p ...

, delivering content from Treehouse TV. It is offered as a free service to customers who subscribe to each providers digital cable service. Some providers such as

SaskTel Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corporation, operating as SaskTel, is a Telecommunications in Canada, Canadian Crown corporations of Canada, crown-owned telecommunications firm based in the province of Saskatchewan. Owned by the provinci ...

offer it as a standalone premium subscription service. Between June 2015 and May 2019, Corus operated ''TreehouseGO'', a

TV Everywhere TV Everywhere (also known as authenticated streaming or authenticated video on-demand) refers to a type of American subscription business model wherein access to streaming video content from a television channel requires users to "authenticate" ...

service available on

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

and Android devices. In 2011, Corus launched a standalone subscription video on demand service for iOS. It was later rebranded to ''Treehouse Classic'' before a 2016 revamp dropped the "Classic" branding. On February 5, 2013,

Nelvana Nelvana Limited (; also known as Nelvana Enterprises, Nelvana International or Nelvana Digital; commonly known as Nelvana; stylized as "nelvana") is a Canadian animation studio and entertainment production company owned by Corus Entertainment s ...

's animation division, launched the Treehouse Direct channel on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. On March 2, 2015, Treehouse TV launched its own YouTube channel. On July 19, 2019, Corus Entertainment filed a

copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of Copyright#Scope, works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the c ...

lawsuit against an

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

-based

medical marijuana Medical cannabis, medicinal cannabis or medical marijuana (MMJ) refers to Cannabis (drug), cannabis products and cannabinoid, cannabinoid molecules that are prescription drug, prescribed by physicians for their patients. The use of cannabi ...

dispensary chain, known as "Treehouse Dispensary", alleging the chain "wilfully copied and is using a confusing similar imitation" of the Treehouse TV logo. An attorney for the dispensary contested the claims and said that the business "categorically denies that its logo infringes on any existing trademarks in the United States." Corus won the lawsuit through a

default judgment Default judgment is a binding judgment in favor of either party based on some failure to take action by the other party. Most often, it is a judgment in favor of a plaintiff when the defendant has not responded to a summons or has failed to app ...

the following December. On July 4, 2022, the CRTC announced plans to renew the license of Treehouse TV, along with those of

Boomerang A boomerang () is a thrown tool typically constructed with airfoil sections and designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight, designed to return to the thrower. The origin of the word is from Australian Aborigin ...

Adult Swim Adult Swim (stylized as dult swimand s is an American adult-oriented television programming block that airs on Cartoon Network which broadcasts during the evening, prime time, and Late-night television, late-night Dayparting, dayparts. T ...

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the Cartoon Network, Inc., a sub-division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It launched on ...

, Télétoon, YTV,

Disney Channel Disney Channel is an American pay television television channel, channel that serves as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Company ...

La Chaîne Disney La Chaîne Disney is a Canadian French-language specialty channel owned by Teletoon Canada, Inc., a subsidiary of Corus Entertainment under license from The Walt Disney Company, and launched on September 1, 2015, replacing Télétoon Rétro. I ...

Disney Junior Disney Jr. (formerly Disney Junior) is an American pay television network owned by the Disney Branded Television sub-division of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Company. Aimed mainly at children two to seven year ...

, and

Disney XD Disney XD is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by the Disney Branded Television and Disney Entertainment units of The Walt Disney Company. The channel is aimed primarily at older children ages six to eleven years old ...

, for another two years (licenses not valid as of August 31, 2024).

Programming

References

External links